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Thursday, July 30, 2009

I’m back! Things have been busy, but good at my house. We have found several new activities to keep the kiddos busy before school starts. They are starting to get bored doing the same old stuff. I’ve printed out a few worksheets to get them used to doing school work again. (They think it’s fun to do them now, but I’m sure once school starts the homework wars will return. LOL) The best thing we have discovered is music and dancing. All three children absolutely love it, and it’s a wonderful way for them to burn energy when it’s entirely too hot for them to be outside during long parts of the day.

I’ve got several photos to share for Project 365, AND I’ve got a video guaranteed to make you giggle. First, is the photo I took on Saturday. I was outside watering my poor tomato plant that is dying due to the heat here, and I spotted this little guy hanging out on one of the leaves. I love all of the different textures in this shot!

On Sunday it was cool enough for the kids to go outside for a bit in the early morning. They all love playing on the play set we have in our back yard, and Bubba especially loves the slide. He’s got such a contagious grin! Lexie loves climbing the rope ladder, and she’s the only one that can do it without getting stuck up there. The other two kids climb up there and get stuck!

Monday is always a busy day for us, and I forgot to take my photo until late in the evening, so I was walking around trying to figure out what to take a picture of when I saw the drawings covering my refrigerator. I figured it would be a neat addition to Project 365 since the little drawings that the kids give me just make my day. (Bubba’s is yellow, and Jordan’s is white. Alexis was in the process of making a new one and had taken the old one down.) Yes, we have quite a collection of Disney magnets. You can’t go to Disney without buying them!

Remember me mentioning music? Well you knew it would factor into a photo somehow right? LOL Here is Tuesday’s photo of the kids in action. Lexie was trying to teach the kids to brake dance. The only problem with that is… she doesn’t know how to brake dance. Hehe I edited this shot with a through the viewfinder technique that I learned in my Jessica Sprague class I took. This one just says so much about my life. Constant, happy, and chaotic. Keep in mind that this was taken at nine in the morning…

Here is the video I promised… The beeping you hear in the background is my coffee pot. All of this happened before caffeine. *Sigh*

Last but never least, yesterday’s photo was of Mr. Brandon drinking his morning sippie cup. I figured I had better get a shot of him doing that because it won’t be long before I have to take them away from him. He has been practicing drinking out of a “big boy cup”, but he doesn’t quite have it down yet. As soon as he does, the sippie cups are out! I don’t want him to have dental problems because of them.

Today is a stay at home pajama day, and we are all really enjoying it. I got to sleep late, and the Littles and I are still in our pajamas. I am catching up on email and blogs while they nap, and later we’re all going to scrapbook! A wonderful do-nothing type of day. I’m going to miss them when they go back to school even if they do drive me crazy.

Friday, July 24, 2009

We are almost there! It has been a long, hard, and very interesting Summer. Full of fun, some trials and tribulations, and lots of love. Thank goodness (for all of our sanity) it’s almost over! The kids go back to school in about two weeks. We’ve started preparing for them to go back. New school bags, school supplies, and uniforms. I don’t know about you, but the new clothes and new notebooks were my favorite part of going back to school when I was younger. Something about starting over with everything new was wonderful!

I have a couple of photos to share for my Project 365. I am still having a really fun time with it even though I end up with some really strange photos. See below!

First up, is a photo of Lady. She hasn’t been doing well lately. She doesn’t seem to be in any pain, but she sleeps a whole lot. I am worried about her. We are just making sure she gets lots of uninterrupted rest! She’s been very spoiled lately, but she’s worth it.

When we went to pick up the girls on Sunday from their sleepover at their Aunt’s house, we walked in to this scene. She is a BRAVE woman! She let all three kids paint at the same time. There was paint everywhere! It was fun and really cute!

Ronnie and Brandon are totally car obsessed. I mean seriously obsessed. The first thing Brandon does when he wakes up is run to his car container and grab a Hot Wheels car. He eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner with is cars. I’ve barely convinced him not to sleep with them. The first thing Ronnie does when he wakes up is to check his favorite NASCAR website, then he drives to work in his big truck with loud exhaust. They have discovered You Tube, and the wealth of videos posted by other car enthusiasts. The typical conversation goes like this…

Ronnie: “Look Bubba that’s a Camaro. Can you say Camaro?”

Bubba: “It’s a car! Wow. It’s a car, it’s a car. Dang yo! (He got that from his Daddy.)”

The both point, and stare at the screen. I keep waiting for them to drool. It is the cutest thing ever. I managed to sneak this photo the other night, and I just LOVE it.

After the above picture, it’s pretty easy to see why I’d find Bubba here during Jordan’s hippotherapy session. (Don’t worry, I had the keys and was a few feet away helping Jordan get on her horse.) Thank goodness he hasn’t figured out how to work the horn yet or the horse would’ve freaked out. Note to self: Keep Brandon in his car seat until AFTER I get back in the van.

Remember earlier when I said if I run out of Project 365 ideas that I start coming up with weird ones? I took a photo of dill pickle chips in my new square bowls. What are dill pickle chips you ask? Only the best potato chips in the world! They actually taste like pickles, and it’s not as weird as it sounds. LOL

Here’s a super cute photo of Jordan from last night. Her hair was all wet from her bath. Usually you can’t tell how long it is because it’s often in a ponytail. It’s REALLY long, even longer than you can see in the photo. We tease her and call her Rapunzel. She’s going to get a good haircut before she goes back to school. It’s getting really difficult to manage, but she’s so pretty with long hair!

Today the girls’ Aunt took them to get their back to school back packs. Jordan was determined to have a Ni Hao Ki-Lan back pack. Nothing else would do! We were so glad that they found one at Target. When Alexis saw Jordan’s, she wanted an identical one. I’m just hoping they won’t mix them up in the morning! Aren’t they cute? (The girls and the back packs!)

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Ronnie’s parents, his sister, and her husband have all three of my kids tonight. They picked them up this morning at nine for a sleepover tonight, and Ronnie and I have been at loose ends. Sure, when they’re here we are overwhelmed, overworked, and overtired. When they’re gone, we miss them like crazy. It’s a no win situation!

I have to update my pictures of the day since it’s been forever since I’ve done so. The first photo is from this past Sunday, and it's a very common sight in my house. I get so tired of doing endless piles of dishes. With a five person household, the dishes are never completely done. There’s always one person who adds a dish to the sink after I finish loading the dishwasher and turn it on.

On Monday at dinner time, Jordan went over and started kissing Brandon. Alexis decided she didn’t want to be left out, and together they made a Brandon sandwich and kissed him all up. He laughed at first, but he quickly got tired of being loved on.

Tuesday found me doing another chore around the house that I never finish. Laundry is never ending. There are never enough clean socks, or underwear, and I wash CONSTANTLY. I had been folding clothes before bed time and decided to snap the piles of them as my photo of the day.

I finally got Alexis to pose for a photo of the day session. She is not a big fan of having her photo taken, which is why you don’t see her much on these posts. She tends to stick her tongue at me and make mean faces. I threatened to scrapbook the mean faces, so she agreed to pose for a decent photo. I took this one Wednesday evening before we headed out to bring her to gymnastics. It’s not a big smile… but I’ll take it!

On Thursday, I had to bring Alexis to the eye doctor. She has had many problems with her eyes crossing. She has had two eye surgeries so far, and we may be looking at another one if her new eyeglasses don’t help correct it. Ronnie says he wants a second opinion if it comes to that again. It is absolutely awful for her. She’s not able to see for hours after the surgery due to swelling, so I totally agree with him.

We ordered the world’s cutest purple frame glasses for her. They should be back in about a week. She is not thrilled about having to wear glasses. In fact, her last pair was broken when she took them off and hid them in her backpack. A little boy accidentally stepped on them. We read her the riot act about keeping the new ones on at all times until bed time. I’m not sure how well that is going to go.

After her eye appointment, we came home to relieve my mother in law and sister in law. They were watching the two youngest kids. Then my brother and his wife Tasha came over with their two kids for a little while during all of the chaos. They have a new baby boy named Christian, and I’ve only gotten to see him twice in his whole life, so I was thrilled to see them. He’s an absolutely adorable little man.

I got my brother to take a picture of me with all of my grandma’s great grandkids. We don’t all get together often, but when we do… I’m telling you chaos is putting it lightly. LOL

Yesterday, I spent at least four hours altering a hat box to store some of my mini scrapbook albums in. I was so proud of it when I was done. I showed Ronnie when he came home, and he said it was “nice”. Four hours of work = nice? I don’t think so! LOL The other boxes were made a few months ago for the same purpose. I love making mini albums, and I’ve had to find creative storage solutions for them.

I’m signing off for now to watch “The Dukes of Hazzard” again with Ronnie. LOL

He just kept doing it over and over. Jordan and Alexis were crying because they were laughing so hard. Little moments like those are the ones that make parenting worth while.

I ended up teary eyed this morning too. I've been trying to teach Brandon to say "I love you." He keeps trying, and it usually comes out a bit garbled, but you can understand what he means. He always waits for me to say it first before he repeats it though. Until this morning...

We were sitting in the car waiting for Jordan to finish therapy when he came up behind my seat and leaned his head on my shoulder. He looked up at me and said "I wub woo."

Yep, even though there are some bad days... this parenting thing ain't all bad. *Sigh*

Saturday, July 11, 2009

It has been a while since I've shared some of the scrapbook pages I've done. So I figured I would add a few here. If you click on them, they'll open up in a new window and you can see more details and read the descriptions.

This layout is of Jordan's 4th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. I know, I got the age wrong in this photo, but it's already been fixed. (Thank you Michelle! LOL) Created with the July Mosh Posh kit! It's a little brighter than I'm used to, but I love how it turned out.

Do you ever feel like life is all about waiting for something? Waiting for your paycheck… Waiting for people to do what you need them to do… Waiting for your children to behave? It can’t just be me! I have been dealing with problems with my minivan, and let me tell you that a dealership is not where you want to be if you don’t like waiting. More on that later…

I have to update my pictures first! On Tuesday I was really busy, and almost forgot to take my photo of the day. At the last possible minute, (eleven at night) I took this photo of my purse. I was very thrilled to get to carry a small semi-fashionable purse once Brandon got a bit older. Of course it’s green, my favorite color!

This photo isn’t a photo of the day, but it’s one I had to share anyway. You know how I am always saying my kids are crazy? Well, if you didn’t believe it before… here is some evidence for you. Jordan dumped all of her toys out of her storage box. Then she got her stuffed Dory from the Finding Nemo movie, and pulled the storage box over her head. She then informed me that she was going to live forever in her aquarium. Uh… okay honey!

On Wednesday, I tried to put the kids in the van to go to the library. We were bored and had cabin fever because it had rained for four days straight. We got in the van and started out, then it began to rain. I turned the windshield wipers on and they would NOT work. Again. I high tailed it to the dealership and gave them a piece of my mind.

I informed them that if I got in a wreck because they wouldn’t fix the wipers that I would “sue the pants off of them and own part of Dodge”. Yes, I lost my temper. I’m not proud, but that lit a fire under their butts, and they agreed to order the part. Keep in mind that it was my fourth trip to complain about the wipers not working. The first three times, they could find nothing wrong with them. Thank goodness they had a play room where I could contain my children in reasonable peace. (For the dealership, not for me.)

Here’s Brandon reclining on one of the bean bags in the play room. Right after I took this picture I was informed that the part wouldn’t be in until Friday. I was NOT a happy camper. Then he told me that hitting the steering column would probably make the wipers kick on. Umm yeah. I’m going to punch my steering column to make the wipers come on. I pay how much a month for this van?! Thank you Dodge! Have I mentioned my next car will be a foreign car? No? LOL We drove home in the rain, but made it safely.

On Thursday I did it again. I almost forgot to take my photo of the day. I have been very distracted lately. I snapped a photo of Brandon laying in Ronnie’s lap. He was trying to go to sleep, but I got a quick photo. I’m glad I did. It shows how quickly he’s growing. Even though he’s super tall, (check out how his legs go up the back of the recliner) he still loves his cuddles. This one was really heavily edited with a Coffeeshop and a Defog action.

Brandon and Jordan have been getting along so much better lately. It’s practically a miracle. Of course to make up for it, Alexis and Jordan have been fighting like cats and dogs but that’s another post. LOL I caught the two little kids snuggling with their teddy bears together in Brandon’s bed on Friday morning. I couldn’t resist having it as my photo of the day.

My wipers were finally fixed after ANOTHER visit to the Dodge dealership on Friday. I didn’t even have to yell. I did have to pay $108 dollars for my deductible on my extended warranty. I had never heard of such a thing. Ronnie swears it’s standard procedure, but I don’t think so. I think he was willing to pay whatever they asked just to know we would be safe to drive. He was even more upset about the situation than I was.

To continue the Brandon show, I have today’s photo. While everyone else was napping he came in my room with me and laid in my bed to “read”. Basically, he looks through the pages and names what he sees. He kept telling me about the “bear” and the “squares” in his Winnie the Pooh book. I am so relieved that he is talking more. He is no where near where he needs to be yet, but he is picking up words and phrases at a rapid rate. His favorite new saying is “Dang, Yo!” He got that from his Daddy, and his Daddy got it from a Jay and Silent Bob movie. LOL

Since this has turned into the longest blog post ever I’ll say goodnight!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

It has been raining here for four days straight. I am feeling water logged and I have cabin fever. I am not even going to describe the children’s behavior. It might scare some of you who do not have kids yet. LOL

Guess what? I have got photos to share. *Not surprised are you?*

The storms lately have been intense. They roll in quickly and are full of bluster and bother. The kids get really nervous when the thunder gets loud enough to shake the windows in the house. Of course I could not resist taking a photo of one of the storms. This is Thursday’s photo. The wind was so strong that day that several trees in our neighborhood were down.

On Friday, Ronnie and I went to the movie theater for the first time in four years! He really wanted to see Transformers and he got his Mom and sister to watch the kids. The movie was full of special effects, and really interesting. It was really long though. I did not care what I watched as long as it meant I got to get out of the house!

To celebrate the Fourth of July, we ended up going to my sister in law’s house to eat barbeque, and it was lots of fun. The kids always love going over to their house. We watched a new Disney movie called Bolt with Miley Cyrus as one of the voices while waiting on lunch to be ready. The girls really adored it.

On the way home, Ronnie stopped and bought a few small fireworks. We waited until it got dark before bringing the kids outside. When we got out there, I was holding Brandon on my hip when he started struggling to get down. I set him down and he RAN to the house screaming “Door!”. He wanted to go back inside. Apparently he still does not like fireworks. We tried!

Ronnie and I had to take turns with the girls so someone could be inside to comfort Brandon. I did manage to get a few cool photos. Here are Alexis and Jordan sitting on the back of Ronnie’s truck watching the fireworks…

Jordan was wearing the headphones that Ronnie bought for Alexis to wear at the NASCAR race. They muffled the fireworks enough that she was not scared this year! The next two photos are of the girls with their sparklers.

Alexis did not look too thrilled with her sparkler. It made her nervous! Here is my favorite photo from the night. I took this with the fireworks setting on my camera.

On Sunday, the two little kids swam in the pool early in the morning. I got a great action (IMO) shot with water droplets in the air. I love the expression on Brandon’s face!

Yesterday was really great! We did not have anywhere to go, so the kids and I got to hang out at home. I got to scrapbook. I let the kids scrapbook as well to keep them entertained! They make a HUGE mess, but it is worth it. I just clean up the millions of shreds of paper later.

I have been feeling really restless lately. I want to get out and do something. I hope the rain stops soon before I go stir crazy! I have to go grocery shopping sometime soon, but that totally does not count as something to do. It is just another chore!

Saturday, July 4, 2009

I got the news today that my best friend's father has passed away. The world has lost one of the most wonderful human beings I have ever known. He was a strong, intelligent man who served his country proudly in the military. He was funny and loved to tease people out of being upset and unhappy. He was there for my best friend when things didn't go the way they should have in life. He was there to listen to my problems and troubles. He gave really great advice, even if I didn't realize it at the time. He treated his grandchildren wonderfully. Seeing him interact with them melted my heart. He even gave me a home and fed me when I needed it. He called me his illegitimate daughter (the one he never talked about), and he made me feel like I belonged. He never hung up the phone without telling me that he loved me. I can not say enough wonderful things about him. He was only fifty-nine, but in those fifty-nine years he gave us all more than we could have wished for. Rest in peace Ralph. I love you too.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

I am back! I have not checked in for a while because I have been pretty sick. I am just now starting to feel somewhat better, and I need to update my Project 365 photos before they get completely out of hand.

On Friday I took a photo of a scrapbook page I did. It is a common thing, so I decided to include it in my Project 365.

Last Saturday I got actual proof that my two youngest children actually love each other. Usually they fight like cats and dogs. I walked past their room and saw them laying together watching TV. Of course I ran for my camera! I love this photo! *Sigh*

When I started getting sick, I decided to take photos of the medicine I have been taking. Unfortunately, it is a part of life. I really did not have the energy to take photos of anything else. Yes, that is a Winnie the Pooh thermometer. I am the biggest baby when I get sick. Well, maybe Ronnie is a bigger baby.

While I was sick, I looked for things to entertain me that did not involve much movement. Ronnie suggested Slingo(an online game). Slingo is very addictive. I played it every night for days. Here is a photo of my computer screen. LOL Yes, I know I was not very creative with my pictures. I was too tired to be creative.

Another day, and more medicine. This time I got the good stuff. Ronnie would not believe me when I said that the generic Walgreen’s brand of Theraflu works better than the regular version, but it so does. I started feeling better almost immediately.

By this time, I am pretty sure you are tired of hearing me whine! The good news is that I am feeling better. I brought Alexis to her psychiatrist’s appointment yesterday morning. Here are the three kids playing in the playroom while we waited to be called back. We are always the first ones there. I love early morning appointments because it means we get in and out quickly. Quite important when you have three kiddos to keep quiet.

For those of you who asked, Alexis has been doing okay as far as medicine goes. Not half as bad as I thought it would be. She has been quite hyper and manic, but not enough to put her back on the bipolar medicine. She is only taking her ADHD medicine now, and we are managing as best as we can. The psychiatrist did add a sleeping pill for her because she has not been sleeping at all at night.

I had better sign off and go cook dinner. The kids are planning a revolt if I do not!